To The Lonely Sea And The Sky
by rhythm junkie
Summary: Merlin lives in St Ishmael's and has secret magic. Arthur lives in the sea and has not-so-secret tentacles. MordernAU  Warnings for: perceived dub/con, slashy slashiness and tentacles - lots of them.


**Please heed my warning: Here Be Tentacles.**

**The title of this o/s comes from a poem called Sea Fever by John Masefield.**

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><p>The first time Merlin saw it, he was sure his eyes were playing tricks. Maybe it was the glint of sun off the sea-foam, or a shadowy seaweed mass floating just under the surface. He squinted, tilting his head first one way then the other, but the picture stayed the same. Someone bobbed in the ocean, sun sparkling on blonde hair, waving to him. And there were tentacles.<p>

Merlin biked home, trying to forget what he thought he'd seen. But it churned behind his eyes and invaded his dreams with the smell of salt-water. The next week, Merlin found himself biking from St Ishmael's to Watch House Bay again. The tentacled person was there, and still waving.

Merlin remained on the bluff for a few weeks before working up the courage to get closer. It was a Thursday when he finally made his way onto the sand. Each time Merlin had taken a step closer, the tentacled person had matched his move. Merlin could see from this distance that his mysterious waver was male.

"Uh...hello?" Merlin called, lifting a tentative hand. The blonde sea-person swayed closer on the waves, his face serious.

"What are you?" he called in response, voice authoritative and demanding.

"What?" Merlin replied, more confused than anything. He took an automatic step back, his own face sliding into a frown at the sea-man's tone.

"Well, you're not human, are you?" the sea-man replied, voice still haughty, "so what are you?"

"Of course I'm human," Merlin answered, even as a small niggle bit at the back of his brain. This sea person couldn't know, no one knew. It was impossible.

"Don't be so naive," the sea-man asked, lip tipped up in a sneer, "If you were then you wouldn't be standing here talking to me."

Merlin took in the arched eyebrows, the strong features, and the solid line of his shoulders before turning and walking away up the beach.

"Hey!" the sea-man called after him, "Don't walk away!"

Merlin didn't turn back.

He didn't manage to forget any better in the intervening days than he had before. But he did do some research, whilst pretending to forget. Five days later he was back at the beach, and his tentacled friend was there too.

"Why did you leave?" The man demanded immediately, but his tone was less acerbic, less challenging. His expression was, whilst not exactly contrite, not as haughty as earlier.

"Because you were being a prat," Merlin replied. The tentacled man's eyebrows dropped, and his face shadowed.

"Do you know who I am?" His tone was haughty once more, but Merlin merely shrugged in that way he knew drove people crazy. As expected, tentacles bristled.

"I know what you are."

"Do you?"

"Mmm."

There was a bit of a stare-off. Merlin was eventually distracted by the undulating tentacles just at the corner of his vision.

"Then why don't you enlighten me. What am I?"

Merlin had spent a long time online, looking at various mythical creatures, trying to remember the exact way the tentacled man looked. It had taken three days before he'd managed to find a similar picture.

"Jerruillette," Merlin answered, enjoying a smug flush as the tentacled man's face registered a swift expression of shock, before sliding back to self-important.

"I knew you weren't human," he crowed in answer, and Merlin noticed the tentacles rolling in his direction, "so _what_ are you?"

"My name is Merlin," Merlin retorted.

"Arthur," the tentacled man replied, before continuing with "what?" at Merlin's startled face.

"I'm sorry," Merlin shook his head, "It's just...Arthur, really?"

"What's wrong with Arthur?" Arthur replied, clearly offended, "Good, regal name, Arthur."

"Yes, of course," Merlin agreed, trying to appease the offended man, "I was just expecting something more...unusual."

"Like Merlin?" Arthur sneered, and Merlin frowned, taking an unconscious step back. Immediately, Arthur's tentacles lifted from the water and swayed toward him.

"Don't go!" he said, voice a shade anxious. Merlin saw the wince that briefly crossed Arthur's face at his own tone, but he shook it off admirably. They stood, floundering, one man in the water, one on the sand, until Merlin cleared his throat.

"So...Jerruilette?" he queried.

"Partly," Arthur replied, his tentacles still quivering, distressed, in Merlin's direction. He squared his shoulders, "I am the son of Poseidon."

"Poseidon is a myth," Merlin replied without thinking, then cringed. Arthur's face turned mocking, and Merlin knew what was coming.

"You are talking to me," he gestured down at his own body, "and you think Poseidon is a made-up story?"

"Don't look much like him," Merlin countered.

"Met him, have you?"

They descended into silence again, Merlin shuffling uncomfortably on the sand and Arthur mimicking him in the shallow water.

"Well," Merlin said after an awkward stretch, "I should..." he waved up towards the bluffs, easing backwards.

"Oh, uh..." Arthur frowned, rocking minutely closer to the shore, "will you be back?" His body, or what Merlin could see of it, was carefully nonchalant, but Merlin could detect the barest _hint_ of unease in his voice.

"Uh..." Merlin hadn't planned to, but the hope in Arthur's eyes stilled his tongue. "Yeah, yeah I'll be back."

"When?"

"Umm, next week?" Merlin took in the glower Arthur threw his way and amended, "or I could probably manage this weekend?"

"Whenever," Arthur replied, and disappeared under the waves. Merlin stood for a few more minutes, until he felt a bit stupid, then turned and took off across the sand.

Despite himself, Merlin returned to the water far more often than he should have, (the deteriorating quality of his Uni work was testament to that), and the men danced a little closer to each other with every subsequent visit.

Merlin was ankle deep in the surf, shoes and socks abandoned on the sand behind him, and Arthur was a mere ten feet away, body rolling gentle on the waves. No matter how often they met up, Merlin could never go longer than a few minutes before his eyes slid back to the tentacles that surrounded Arthur, their red and gold tips glinting beneath the water. That was the thing about Arthur, no matter how much research Merlin did he couldn't quite find a match. The Jerruilette was the closest but the colouring was wrong.

Where Jerruilette's were fabled to have tiger print skin and orange, purple and black tentacles, Arthur's stripes were a faded red and gold and his tentacles were a strange muted mixture of the same colours.

"Would you like to touch them?"

Merlin jumped at Arthur's voice, amused but shadowed with a..._something_ that Merlin couldn't quite place. Merlin's eyes slid back to the tentacles that were reaching out to him, curling and uncurling in an almost tender motion.

"I thought they'd be blue," Merlin murmured, speaking his thoughts out loud in his distraction, feeling hypnotised by their constant undulation. He startled when cold water lapped under the turn-up of his jeans, his feet shifting him deeper into the water, closer to those tentacles without his conscious permission.

"Oh? Why so?" Arthur's voice was nothing more than a breathy trace against his skin.

"Because Poseidon is blue," Merlin replied.

Arthur's throaty chuckle snapped Merlin out of his tentacle-based reverie, and he jumped at the rapacious look glittering on those handsome features. Merlin went startled-still for a few seconds, before clumsily trying to back up to a safer position nearer land. As he stepped away, he felt something brush his calf. Looking down, he watched with almost clinical fascination as one of Arthur's tentacles wrapped desirously around his lower leg, swirling upwards with the current and slipping around his thigh. Another took advantage of his distraction to slide around his waist, resting there partly protective, partly possessive.

Merlin looked back up to Arthur, whose face was feral with intent, and wondered how he had ever mistook this creature for even partly human. Arthur grinned as Merlin felt the slide of yet more tentacles brushing his body, securing him in Arthur's coveting grip.

"Merlin," Arthur breathed, sharp teeth pressing dents into his bottom lip as he nudged Merlin closer. Merlin went, helpless and tightly bound as he was in Arthur's grasp. "I've wanted to touch you for ages."

Merlin made a small _meep_ when a tentacle took advantage of the water's effect on his t-shirt and slipped underneath the billowing material, brushing Merlin's stomach in small, soothing skims. He was surprised to find that, rather than slimy and cold as he had imagined, the tentacle, covered in slight ridges, was firm and warm against his skin as it grazed his sensitive nipple on its journey up towards his neck. Merlin gasped, couldn't help himself, and Arthur tugged him a little closer, panting quick, sharp breaths into the air in response.

Merlin was so occupied by the sensations assaulting him that it took him far longer than it should have to realise they were moving away from shore, and at a brisk pace. He panicked, flailing against his living restraints whilst watching dry land recede into the distance, but Arthur pulled him in until their bodies were pressed together, Merlin cradled in a tender tentacled embrace.

"You're okay," Arthur crooned against his cheekbone, voice honey-sweet, "I've got you." Merlin stopped thrashing, tense but compliant in Arthur's grip. Arthur smiled against his neck in response, and the tentacles that had found their way to Merlin's skin twitched in a way that Merlin could only describe as affectionate (although he had no idea how he could possibly know that).

They slowed to a stop, eddying in the water, and Arthur's expression was back to carnivorous. His head dipped to the side, and Merlin felt a soft exploratory nip to the flesh joining his neck and shoulder. He shuddered and the tentacles stilled as one before resuming their exploration, a little more frantic than before.

"What are you?" Arthur repeated his often-asked question, but his tone was wondrous and his tongue licked the length of Merlin's neck.

"I...I..." Merlin stuttered, his teeth clacking together at the effort of speech. Arthur frowned and Merlin found his tongue suddenly heavy with the weight of Arthur's index and middle finger. Merlin groaned against the intrusion, and Arthur's focused expression, but he jumped when the tip of a tentacle pressed in beside the invading fingertips. Merlin tried to jerk back, but Arthur held him fast, stroking his tongue, soothing as something sweet and sticky dripped into his mouth and began the slow viscous slide down his throat.

Merlin gurgled a little, but Arthur's other hand was in his hair, holding his head steady, and Arthur's mouth was begging trust against Merlin's temple. Convulsively, Merlin swallowed the liquid down, the taste bursting bright through his system as Arthur murmured approval. Unbidden, Merlin's magic whorled towards the brightness, seeming to pulse vivid in response. Merlin moaned.

"It'll keep you warm," Arthur uttered against Merlin's lips. "Swallow it down and you'll be okay, I swear it."

Merlin felt the brightness flickering through his muscles, warming his bones right down to his toes. He groaned again, so lost in the sensation that he almost missed the looseness of fabric at his hip. He didn't miss the slip-slide of a tentacle in his jeans, prodding curiously at the waistband of his boxers. He tried to jerk his pelvis away, the shock of it turning him skittish, but Arthur chose that moment to sink teeth into his neck, making Merlin moan and shiver in his arms.

Merlin writhed against the tentacled man who held him in such a thrall. His tongue slid out to taste Arthur's salty skin, a sharp contrast to the lingering sweetness in his mouth, and the tentacles that seemed to be on every inch of his skin, probing and caressing him all over. The tentacle that had wrapped around his cock slid its ridged self over the head, and Merlin came without warning, arching in Arthur's constraint.

There was a growl against his lips as his body went shatter-sweet in Arthur's arms, and the tip of something very tentacle-like was sliding down and under to press against Merlin's entrance. Merlin tightened in response, startled enough to begin struggling anew, but Arthur's arms constricted around his ribs, bringing him in closer until their lips brushed.

"Please, Gods, please," Arthur begged against Merlin's mouth, "I can hardly...you're so...it's like you're calling to me..." Arthur took a deep breath, trying to rein himself in, but his grip remained vice-like and the tentacle continued its probing movements between Merlin's legs.

"Merlin," Arthur hummed, his voice dark and heavy and so close to supplication that Merlin just _gave_, his muscles going lax, thighs falling open. Arthur made a small triumphant noise against Merlin's Adams apple, and then Merlin was breached.

It was a peculiar sensation, the tentacle slicking him inside with each pulse, moving forward in tiny increments and expanding with every centimetre conquered until Merlin was brimful of it, legs spread, throat bared, moaning and wanton at the sheer sybaritic devastation of it all.

Something pressed against his groin as Arthur's hands helped the tentacles push Merlin's jeans down his legs, and Merlin looked down, astonished to see a muted red and gold striped penis nudging his own.

Arthur, whose eyes had followed Merlin's, laughed low and lusty, murmured, "You thought the tentacles were it, did you?" He emphasised the point by flexing the tentacle ensconced in Merlin's rear passage, and Merlin's head dipped back, a mewl torn from his throat. Arthur's teeth were there in an instant, biting the skin, marking territory, leaving beautiful throbbing aches behind. "I was just stretching you out Merlin, making you ready for me." Arthur mouthed Merlin's ear, before whispering darkly, "Are you ready for me, Merlin?"

Merlin found his vision full of blue sky, body supported in a curved tentacle frame, water lapping at his back and Arthur all down his front, hooking those striped arms under his knees and pressing forward with a tigerish grin that was a perfect match for his markings, pushing inside Merlin in one long, steady thrust.

Merlin had never heard himself, or any other human, make the noises that slid through his clenched teeth. His chest was as tight as Arthur was in his arse, his stomach muscles aching from the way he arced beneath the man inside him. Arthur snarled something that made Merlin's skin taut, and then he began rolling his hips in a deep, constant motion, eyes fixed on Merlin's face as if to swallow all the twists of his features.

Merlin scrabbled and arched at each stretching thrust of Arthur's cock inside him, and expelled whimpering sighs on every retreat, whilst Arthur worried at the corners of his mouth, his neck and his collarbone, biting and sucking the skin, muffling rumbling snarls on every mouthful.

Merlin came again, an orgasm so intense it was almost painful, his entire body too sensitive, buffeted by too many sensations. Arthur's tentacles scooped Merlin up, crushing him into Arthur's body as Arthur urged Merlin's thighs wider, urged the already over-taxed opening to stretch further as his cock grew inside Merlin's slicked channel, throbbing until Merlin cried out, the line of pleasure and pain pulled taut, his body fluttering uselessly around the intrusion.

That seemed to be the extra stimulation Arthur needed and, with a low groan, his fingers sunk into Merlin's skin and he came hard, tentacles holding Merlin's lower body flush against Arthur's so that Arthur wasn't thrusting so much as shoving his pelvis against Merlin's, the surging cock inside Merlin dragging minutely against the sensitive walls of his passage as Arthur rode out his climax.

Arthur flipped them around so that Merlin was resting on Arthur's chest, Arthur's cock still deep inside him, both of them cocooned in warm tentacles, and they floated for a time, blissful and maybe a little mindless, swaying with the waves.

**0o0o0o**

The boat rocked with the motion of the water and Will laughed as Merlin clutched at the side until his knuckles were white. Merlin only clutched tighter when Will leaned across to nudge him.

"It's a gorgeous, calm day, and this is a sturdy boat." He grinned, slapping the hull with the flat of his hand, "You're gonna be just fine."

Merlin nodded without looking at him, eyes fixed on the wooden grain beneath his feet and most definitely not on the surrounding sea. After the...incident with Arthur, Merlin had woken as if from a lulling sleep on the beach, sated and a bit dopey, with the vague memory of Arthur's fond-soft face the last thing he'd seen before he'd drifted from consciousness.

It hadn't hit him until he'd gotten home. He'd been in the bath, washing out the sand and the grime of saltwater when it occurred to him that he'd had sex with a tentacled sea-man. The panic attack that had followed had been quite spectacular. Merlin had locked himself in his flat for a week, running insane scenarios from the truth of him sleeping with a sea-man, to his having imaginary sex with a mythical creature whilst floating in the sea where anyone could have seen him.

Merlin stayed well away from water that didn't come from taps after that, throwing himself back into Uni work (much to the relief of his tutors) and forcing himself to forget all about his deranged delusions. Until Will had decided that a Saturday afternoon boating trip was in order, and dragged Merlin along to keep his girlfriend's best mate 'company'. Merlin could smell a set-up but no amount of whining, pleading or outright refusal could get him out of Will's plans.

"I thought the forecast said calm weather all day?" Elena's voice broke Merlin from his staring match with the boat's flooring. His eyes followed her outstretched arm to the fast-rolling bank of ominous clouds racing over the sky towards them.

"It did," Will countered, just as the boat began to dip harder against the choppier water. He began ordering Elena's brother (whose name Merlin hadn't bothered to learn) about and executing complicated flurries involving ropes, whilst Merlin sank his nails into the wood beneath his fingertips.

Although he was living in the land of denial, Merlin _knew_ this was about him. Elena screamed as the boat tipped violently, sloshing the occupants with water, and causing Will to cry out as a rope slashed out of his grip, burning the skin of his palm. The sky above them was black now, the sea a turbulent mass of waves. A wind that seemed to appear from nowhere knocked the boat side-on, Will and Elena's brother losing their grip on whatever rope they had been trying to manoeuvre, and the boat lurched back.

Merlin felt it before he saw it, the wave that rose to crash over him, and was oddly calm at the tentacle that wrapped itself around his waist before whipping him away from the vessel, and his friends. His magic surged out, even as he tried to tamp it down, as if to welcome an old friend. He heard a faint scream after him, then nothing at all above wind and crashing waves.

Arthur, when he rose from the sea, was a terrifying sight. Water streamed from his hair and his skin, and Merlin would swear until his dying day that lightening rocked through those blue eyes. Arthur was every inch the son of Poseidon, and his wrath was mighty.

"You thought you could set foot on the ocean without my knowledge?" Arthur boomed in a voice made of thunder, and Merlin recoiled as much as he could whilst held in a seething mass of tentacles that had erupted around him, "You thought you could trespass on my domain without consequence?"

The tentacles lashed, whipping Merlin closer to the enraged sea-man before him, and he struggled against their grip, although he knew it was futile. Arthur was half a foot away now, face aphotic with fury.

"What's the matter, Merlin?" he jeered, snapping a tentacle near Merlin's ear, making him jerk his head back, "You certainly didn't mind them touching you before."

"I'm sorry!" Merlin yelled, tight with fear and anger borne of helplessness, "I freaked out okay? I thought I was going mental! How was I supposed to react when I realised I'd had sex with a sea-monster?"

Arthur visibly recoiled, all but one tentacle releasing their grip on Merlin's body. When Merlin looked up, Arthur's face was so _hurt _that he could barely stand to look at it.

"Monster?" Arthur uttered, his cracked voice somehow louder to Merlin's ear than the whistling wind or the raging waves, "That's what you thought?"

"I..." Merlin trailed off, unsure of what to say, and felt a rush of dismay as Arthur's expression closed down.

"My apologies," Arthur said, voice turning stiff and formal, and before Merlin could say something, _anything_, he found himself hurtling back toward the boat, stopping only inches from where it bobbed in the fast calming water.

Hands reached for him, hauling him over the side and into Will's arms, and as Elena fussed around him, Merlin could do nothing but stare out into the empty sea and wonder what he had done.

**0o0o0o**

Merlin had a moment of brief hesitation before dipping a toe into the water. Even in July, it was icy against his skin. Still, it was like breaking a seal, once he'd made the initial move the rest of him just rushed straight in. He was up to his waist before he had the presence of mind to stop and gather his magic under his skin, rushing away the stinging cold and making the whole experience a bit more palatable.

It had been six months since Merlin had even dared to look at a photograph of the ocean. He'd come away from the boat incident reeling, and maybe a little traumatised, from the look on Arthur's face just before he went distant. It was that look, and the utter dereliction of it, that worried at Merlin's mind until it was all he could think about. He'd never in his short life felt such guilt. It tapped at his skin any time he had a moment to himself, spidering its delicate way into his pores until he was saturated with it, until everything he did was marked with the taint of Arthur's stricken expression.

Merlin had thrown himself into everything he could think of; Uni work, Uni clubs, socialising, demonstrating – anything that kept him from thinking about Arthur, and had him sagging onto his bed, too tired to think (and, far more important, to dream) at the end of the day. It was almost three months before his body rebelled, collapsing like a wet flan and refusing to go on.

The next three months were spent in quiet, self-imposed exile, mourning something he'd lost and then beating himself up for doing so when he couldn't even define what he'd had. His advisor had called around the two month mark and, with some (more or less) sympathetic clucking, offered him an eight-month sabbatical to "get yourself together, lad." Gaius had always been kind to Merlin, a tad more than he deserved, and Merlin had taken him up on his suggestion.

For the first week, Merlin had locked himself in his flat and watched mindless daytime television that bled into mindless evening television until the day he had woken up and knew it was time. The next week had been spent back on the bluffs, eyes on the waves almost without break. He never saw what he wanted to see.

Merlin, deep enough to float, flipped onto his back and began a lazy backstroke through the water, allowing the current to carry him a little. He knew a long wait was the most probable outcome, but it didn't stop the little gutting wrench as he dragged himself from the water hours later, bloated from the salt and shivering in the sharp evening chill. He walked back up the beach, sand gritting under his feet, careful not to touch the thought he'd locked in a glass case at the far corner of his mind; the one that came to him when it was darkest outside.

_What if this is it?_

Merlin shook his head, his stride determined as he made his way to his car. He was up early the next morning for a day of swimming in the sea, and had every intention of hitting the sand with the first rays of sun.

Even with all his hard-bright determination Merlin sometimes faltered, most often in the evenings when he was wet and cold, sand grit buried in his feet and salt grit buried in his pores. Sometimes he wondered if this were his penance, other times he wondered if this wasn't exactly what he deserved.

It was a blustering Tuesday afternoon late in October, when Merlin was losing heart (and possibly skin elasticity), that he caught the first flash of muted red and gold. He whipped his head to the left so hard his vision took a few moments to catch up. He scanned the waves but there was nothing, and his heart thumped a little as he settled back with his eyes on the grey skies once again.

And there it was, just at the edge of his vision, a flash and then gone. Merlin forced himself still, although it took a lot of will-power (and enough magic that the cold was a sudden wet bite in his toes), and allowed a small curl of relief to tickle his ribs when that same colour mix flashed again. Merlin settled back against the waves, and swam with renewed vigour.

Weeks later, Merlin was swimming a slow forward crawl when he felt the slip of a tentacle around his ankle. In contrast to the gentle grasp, Merlin was yanked backwards hard, cutting sharply through the water and slamming into a warm Arthur-shaped body.

"Do you pay attention to anything?" Arthur's voice was clipped at his ear, "Are your eyes ever open?"

Merlin looked in the direction of Arthur's ramrod straight arm, and saw what he'd been saved from. A smack of jellyfish floated in a placid congregation through the area of water Merlin had been about to swim headlong into, their delicate feelers trailing out and taking over the surrounding waves.

As they made their silent way closer, Arthur gathered Merlin up close, covering his skin completely in a red and gold swirl just as the jellyfish and their trailing feelers reached them.

"They don't hurt you?" Merlin questioned, his eyes on the jellyfish.

"Don't be ridiculous," Arthur replied, voice tight.

When they were free of the floating danger, Arthur retracted his tentacles (although they lingered in a way that Merlin suspected both irritated and embarrassed Arthur) and made to shove Merlin from him but Merlin turned, wrapping his arms around Arthur's neck, bringing them face to face.

"What are you doing?" Arthur bit out, trying to disentangle himself, but Merlin went dead weight around Arthur's neck until Arthur stopped trying to prise them apart and went rigid.

"I'm sorry," Merlin gasped out, his body going a bit haywire at being so close to Arthur after so long. He smelled salty and strong and the brush of his tentacles against Merlin's bare legs made his breath short, "I'm sorry I called you a sea-monster. I didn't mean it, I was surprised, or frightened or whatever, I just...I'm sorry."

Arthur's eyes were hard, but Merlin kept clinging, determined not to let go until Arthur heard him out. He insinuated himself closer, pulling his arms tighter around Arthur's muscular shoulders.

"I was an idiot," Merlin insisted, fingers digging into slippery skin, "I freaked out and...I've missed you."

"You called me..." Arthur started, but Merlin detected a note of hesitation in his voice and shoved closer, trying to press their lips together. Arthur jerked his chin high, putting his mouth well out of Merlin's reach.

Although it was expected, Merlin still felt a punch of rejection deep in his sternum. He let go of Arthur immediately, but Arthur's tentacles stopped him before he got too far.

"I'm not rejecting you, Merlin." Arthur's snotty voice made Merlin bristle.

"You kinda did," Merlin shot back, trying to tug free of the tentacle around his waist. Arthur sighed, and yanked him closer.

"How much do you know about Jerruillette?" Arthur asked, his voice gentler now. Merlin refused to meet the blue eyes he could feel on his skin, but he did stop his futile escape attempts.

"Merlin," Arthur said, and a tentacle nudged Merlin's chin up, "A kiss is a big thing in my world." Merlin made to say something bratty, but Arthur's soft eyes stopped him. "If you kiss me, Merlin, you're mine. For good." He gestured at his body, and raised his eyebrows until Merlin's neurons started firing and he understood what Arthur was telling him.

"Shit, really?" Merlin looked down at the red and gold enveloping his wrist, and tried to imagine them on his own body, wriggling in place of legs.

"Yes Merlin, really."

Merlin could hear the roll of Arthur's eyes but words died on his tongue at Arthur's expression, stomach-warming and intimate. Arthur nudged forward, kissing Merlin's cheekbone before dragging his lips to rest a millimetre from Merlin's lips.

"If you choose me, Merlin," Arthur whispered, his voice sliding liquid down Merlin's spine, "then it's forever."

Merlin's life flashed before him, all the things he'd be giving up; Will, University, his flat, his mum. The last one gave him pause, something tender poking his chest, but it was chased away by Arthur huffing against his neck, body firm and hot against him in the cold water. Hunith would understand. Merlin _knew_ she would.

"Yes," Merlin whispered, and Arthur reared back, his face shocked.

"Really?"

"Yes," Merlin repeated, grinning so hard it hurt, and surged forward to claim his first kiss from Arthur.

**0o0o0o**

Merlin came to with Arthur wrapped around him, feeling dizzy and disorientated. His magic zinged, and it felt like the water around him was electrified. He tried to twist in Arthur's grip, but Arthur wasn't letting go.

"Are you okay?"

Merlin smiled at the sound of his deep voice, a little impatient and a lot worried. He kept his eyes closed and let his magic help him adjust to his new body, exploring the extra appendages he could feel hanging heavy where his legs used to be.

"Merlin?" Arthur shook him, his voice sharp, making it clear he was done waiting and expected some sort of immediate answer.

"Yeah, m'okay," Merlin replied, his own voice raspy and a little slurred, "Just a shock, y'know?"

When he forced his eyes open, Arthur's face hovered a few inches from his own, clear distress written in his eyes. Merlin smiled and raised a palm to his face, stroking the skin, and Arthur leaned into the touch, his expression _finally_ lightening into something more like pleased.

"Merlin," he murmured, voice low, body slipping closer, "Let's see them then."

It took Merlin a moment to cotton on to what Arthur was asking but when he did he concentrated his efforts into bringing the heavy weight of his new tentacles to the surface. When they broke, water cascading from them, they glittered in the sunlight, hued gold swirling through a blue the colour of creeping twilight.

"Oh."

Merlin's eyes popped up, catching Arthur eyeing his tentacles with a sort of unhappy twist to his mouth. Merlin looked back at them, and found he rather liked their royal blue and gold swirl.

"Don't you...like them?" He asked, the question leaving an oppressive heaviness on his tongue. He didn't understand Arthur's expression. This is what Arthur had wanted...wasn't it?

"What?" Arthur's own voice was high with surprise, "No. I mean, I don't _not_ like them." At Merlin's confused expression he clarified, "Merlin, they're part of you. They're gorgeous."

Merlin spent the day trying out his new appendages, shooting them out to grab things then letting go just as fast. Trying to control all of them at once was a chore, and it took up most of his brain power. He did, however, have enough presence of mind to catch the occasional discouraged expression flit across Arthur's features. It made Merlin anxious, this unexpected discontent in Arthur.

It wasn't until he found one of Arthur's red and gold tentacles wrapped around his own, so lightly he hadn't noticed, that Merlin realised the problem. Arthur was looking hard at the entwined colours, his brow furrowed deep, and Merlin's brain clicked.

"Matching gold is just as good you know," he said, as nonchalant as he could pull off. Arthur startled, his tentacle whipping back as if burned. His face rattled through a range of emotions until it settled on aloof, and he shrugged his shoulders, half turning away.

"Just because our colours are different, doesn't make me any less yours," Merlin murmured, catching a retreating red and gold tentacle in his palm and fingering it with a gentle caress. Arthur's chest jumped but his face remained closed. Merlin's mouth curved up a little and he slid closer, "Doesn't make you any less mine either."

When Arthur turned, face wide with denial, Merlin silenced him with a kiss and spent the rest of the afternoon taking his mind off colour differences.

**0o0o0o**

For weeks, months maybe (time had become somewhat irrelevant) Arthur spent all of his days helping Merlin acclimatise to his new world, teaching him what to eat (they argued of course, Arthur a staunch sea-creature muncher, whilst Merlin was more the floaty green plant eater), how to use his tentacles, how to navigate and, most important, how to cope with this new living bond that was a constant shiver between them, flaring in distress when one or the other strayed too far.

Once Merlin was comfortable in his new skin, they spent a great deal of time exploring each other. Despite the mind-blowing sex they'd already shared, Merlin hadn't even considered how much better it could be with even more tentacles. Merlin was starting to suspect he had some sort of kink, but it was often hard to think when Arthur was stretching him wide, the rest of their tentacles coiling sweetly together.

Everything was brilliant, except for something that was nagging at Merlin in a not-quite-there-but-there way.

Arthur was troubled as Merlin sought ever-colder waters. He circled Merlin more and more as the currents cooled, until he was in a constant state of motion, his tentacles frequently reaching out to shiver over Merlin's before pulling back, as if unsure of their welcome.

"What is wrong with you?" Merlin asked, even as he was turning his head, scenting the air. There was something about this place, something familiar that tugged at his chest and his hips, urging him forward towards land. Merlin huffed, irritated, as Arthur got in his way again and he had to do a sort of sideways water-dance to get around the obstruction Arthur had made of his body.

"Oh," Merlin whispered, understanding the pull the instant he spotted the beach and the bluffs. Instinct drove him closer to the sandy shores, and Arthur made an unhappy noise in his throat, which Merlin ignored.

"Merlin," Arthur's voice was a mix of dolor and something close to mortification, his hands grasping near Merlin's waist but not quite touching. His tentacles had no such qualms, reaching out to tangle with Merlin's until Merlin could go no further.

"Arthur!" Merlin looked over his shoulder, high and tight with revelation, "Arthur, I think I can get out. My body...it wants..."

He turned back to the shore, but Arthur held him fast, his face miserable and earnest. Merlin reached down to untangle their tentacles with soft hands and, after the first successful parting, the rest seemed to follow suit, albeit with reluctance.

"I just want to try," Merlin gasped, voice high with excitement, "If it works, I can visit my mum! Tell her I'm not dead!"

Merlin moved closer to shore, until he felt the silty tang of sand under his tentacles, which had started to tighten in around him, twisting closer, tangling together. Merlin emerged from the sea, naked and shedding water, and collapsed onto the sand on his knees (_knees!_), wobbly from being without legs to use for so long. He stood on shaky feet then turned to the sea, triumphant, but Arthur was nowhere to be seen.

**0o0o0o**

Hunith, believing Merlin to have drowned, was thrown to find him on her doorstep, in clothes he's nicked from washing lines, (which she admonished him for later until he told her he'd memorised the addresses so that they could be washed and returned to their rightful owners), looking healthier and happier that he ever had. She'd then gotten a worried crease around her eyes when he explained what had happened, until he got into the bath to _show_ her. Then she'd fainted dead away. When she'd come to (and gotten the hysteria out of the way) she was remarkably calm about the whole situation.

"And this Arthur," she questioned Merlin over his cup of tea, which he seemed to have lost his taste for, "He's good to you?"

Merlin smiled, indulging her urge to mother, and nodded. He sat still and allowed her to catalogue all the differences in him now and compare them to the Merlin from before. He saw her eyes register his skin, healthy from the sun and the cleansing properties of salt water, the way his body had filled out a little (who knew ocean plants were so good for you), the way his eyes had a particular light to them that his old life hadn't provided, and then sit back, satisfied with what she saw.

"If he makes you happy darling, that's all that matters." She smiled and sipped her tea, and Merlin knew he wasn't imagining the sad tenor in her tone. He reached forward and took her hand.

"Mum," he said, concentrating his power on where they were joined, "I want to give you something, if you'll let me. A way to contact me whenever you need to."

Hunith quirked her lips as if his even asking was a ridiculous concept, but her eyes widened to almost comic proportions when their joined hands began to glow a gentle summer yellow. When it faded, sinking deep into her skin and binding her to him again, she looked stunned.

"Throw a note into any water in the world, and it'll find me," Merlin said, keeping their hands clasped. "Next time you go on holiday, we can meet up. Just...choose somewhere warm, yeah? Arthur gets arsey about the cold."

Just mentioning Arthur made Merlin long for his presence, but he forced himself to stay for three more days, allowing Hunith the time to accept the changes in her life, in their lives. When he left, kissing her tearful cheek, he had to wait by the beach until nightfall, the proximity of the water making him jittery with need, until all the visitors had gone and he could shed his human skin again.

Arthur, because he was a prat and a git and a bloody idiot, was nowhere to be found, and remained so for four long months. Merlin felt the bond between them shiver frequently and followed its pull, but often he was left with just a faint impression of Arthur having been _near_ as he trod empty water. The slow, lonely hours stoked at his anger until he boiled over and all that was left was a sort of quiet aching need that tugged at his bones intermittently throughout his days.

**0o0o0o **

Merlin was floating on his back, enjoying the sun on his bared stomach, when he felt it, the buzz up his spine that indicated Arthur was near. He forced himself still, determined that today would be the day he had Arthur back in his arms. Merlin pulled his magic around him like a cloak, forcing it to dampen the bond's need to scream through the water to Arthur, to let him know that Merlin was here. He lay staring at the sky, feeling the contained fizz under his skin, until his ears were _ringing_ with how close Arthur had to be and his whole body felt lit up like Broadway.

When he was sure Arthur was close enough that he couldn't escape, Merlin let his magic roar out of him and dived towards the pull. The bond went taut with awareness, and Merlin could feel Arthur readying to escape but it was too late because Merlin had rounded the rocks and was on him, tentacles tangling until red and blue and gold were indistinguishable.

"You...you...utter clotpole!" Merlin snapped out as Arthur thrashed, only tangling himself further in Merlin's grip. Merlin let him, watching as Arthur realised he wasn't getting away, and went still in an instant, his skin vibrating with tension. "Where the hell did you go?"

"Me?" Arthur's eyes flashed as they sought out Merlin's, hurt and icy with anger, "You left me."

"Left?" Merlin sputtered, "Arthur, I _told_ you I wanted to get out. I was coming back! I just wanted to see if I could. I wasn't leaving you!"

"But you did," Arthur replied, quiet, all the petulance bled out of his voice and replaced with sadness, "You went onto the sand, you had legs Merlin!, and you just...walked away."

"Arthur," Merlin found himself crooning, drifting closer until he could shoot his arms out and pull Arthur into his chest, holding him there with the aid of tentacles. Arthur spluttered his surprise, tried to struggle, then gave up, going limp in Merlin's embrace.

"Arthur," Merlin nuzzled against his ear, "I wanted to visit my Mum. She thought I was dead. I wanted to...explain. She wants to meet you."

"She what?" Arthur cried, half panicked, turning against Merlin to look at his face, check if he was being truthful. Merlin laughed and chanced a quick kiss. Arthur's mouth was warm and salty and tasted of home, and Merlin whimpered a little, pressing closer, nuzzling Arthur's cheek, wanting this to be over so they could move onto more...physical things.

"Mmm," he managed, licking Arthur's cheekbone with the tip of his tongue, "I told her to choose warm waters, since you're such a baby about the cold, but she likes the sun so that shouldn't be too much of a chore for her."

"Merlin?" Arthur's voice was tentative, his face so hopeful, that Merlin's whole chest seized.

"I can't leave you," Merlin clarified, everything there was of him reaching out and wrapping Arthur in an all-over embrace, "I wouldn't want to. You're the...other side of my tentacle, so to speak." Arthur's warm chuckle made Merlin shiver in places he didn't know _could_ shiver.

"You're mine?" Arthur asked, breath warm on Merlin's neck, "Forever?"

"Yep," Merlin replied, pushing his fingers into hair turned amber in the sunlight, "And you're mine. Forever."

* * *

><p><strong>Thank you for reading. As always, feel free to leave me your thoughts.<strong>


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